The Shoot

It must have been somewhere around 2:00am on the 2nd day. Cables dangled from a hardback book sized satchel at my waist, stretching to the parked Highlander we made into home base, entwined up the makeshift (but every bit as functional as a more expensive) boom, and tethering me to a pair of standard-issue headphones.
This feels like a real movie set, I thought. A slight breeze pushed the unusually cold June air through a few layers of old clothes. At least the actors, tucked in side a beat-up station wagon were spared from the gentle chill of the wind. Two big halogen lights and the scatter from a makeshift police car carved the scene out of darkness. For the entire day before, and the next 3 1/2 days this would be a familiar place. Carefully keeping the Mic-on-a-stick out of the way of the cameras, listening to the almost cliche "Winona, scene 7. 31-32-33-43 take 2" followed by the clap of the slate. The beautiful thing, was I knew what it all meant now. I was a part of it. And no matter how small or disorganized or low budget this was, we were making a real movie.
And let me tell you, this was low budget, disorganized, and I wish it were smaller....

to be continued.

You know it's bad when your dreams remind you of a zombie apocolypse movie.

Warning, undeveloped fiction content.
We can all remember what it was like before, but it's been a while. It's become a world of checkpoints and heavy security. Every time people come together in groups it might happen. Sometimes you can tell. You see someone standing not moving up in line. Not talking. Mouth agape just enough for the soul to escape (they say). If you're watching you can spot them in time, tell their cold stare of change from the dead gaze we've all developed from living in fear for so long. You can alert the guards if you're fast enough, otherwise you just run. Everyone runs then. Only the guards with their thick suits and machine guns go after them. Try to pick them out of the fleeing crowd, the locking gates. Shoot on site, catch a few strays is better than the alternative.
It doesn't happen every day anymore. But every night we dream that the next day might be our last. Could be anyone, any time. No one seems to have found out how it starts, can't tell by blood-type, race, color, creed, hometown, food, drinking water, medical background. We are all at risk of being a new seed, the one who slowly goes still standing with the light fading from our eyes.
END Fiction Content.

I have a prediction.

The Mac vs PC wars rage on. It's been fought in the streets of Desktop Publishing, Art and Music, design vs horsepower, etc. Of course one of the biggest fronts is that of computer viruses and other malware. We won't be discussing the finer points of 'why' today. Simply the fact remains, there is little malware targeted to the Mac OS and a whole bunch out there written for Windows.
If you like you may commence a Mac-PC argument with anyone nearby. I'll Wait.
Done? Good.
Anyone paying attention has noticed that Apple has released their new iPhone. The biggest part of this news is how cheap it is, somewhere in the $200 vicinity. Literally 1/3 the launch price of the original iPhone one year ago. Doing a little math here: cheap(ish) + massive marketing money + actually handy device = everyone within sight of one of those commercials will want one.
I think it's fair speculate that just like the iPod, there will be more iPhone users than Mac users over all. Apple of course has counted on both products to convince people to switch and buy their computers too, but that's peripheral to the discussion here.
Are we all agreed? the iPhone stands to transcend the Mac v PC debate and find its hands into anyone who's got $200 and an expired cell-phone contract.
Everyone ready? If you're paying attention you can probably guess my premonition already.

We're going to see the 1st live iPhone virus drop before we see a significant OSX virus drop.

Not a huge leap I know, but I think that the combination of a unified market share and developer's tools floating around out there will facilitate the malware creators to target the iPhone before the Mac OS.

Breaking the music industry

Make no mistake. If it were up to the record companies every radio/mp3 player/car stereo would have a coin slot in it, and you would shove in a quarter (or more) every time you pushed play or a song came on the radio. With pay-for downloads locked to your computer and DRM in full swing they're getting awfully close.
Fortunately there is change in the wind.
Trent Reznor of Nine inch Nails has made quite a wave in the music industry lately. He's long been known to distribute free downloads of his tracks to make available for remix. Lately he even followed in the wake of the band Raiodhead and released an entire album on-line for five-bucks. (Radiohead used a name-your-own-price model, and the album is no longer available for download.)

Now he's gone even farther and release a full length album for free, in its entirety. The Slip is available now. And you are encouraged to

share it with your friends,
post it on your blog,
play it on your podcast,
give it to strangers,
etc.

The music industry has been reeling lately because of artists like t.reznor. People who genuinely appreciate their fans and want to give them satisfaction without eating into their pocketbook and their privacy. Who are willing to buck the huge marketing machine that the record labels have to offer. It can be a big risk, but the simple cheap distribution of the internet makes it a much more viable delivery system.
Perhaps moves like this from big bands will start to break down the old busted model that the record companies have been clinging to for way too long now.

Oh and the album rocks. Thanks Trent. For making good music, and making it available in ways few are willing to do now.